The Dive Evangelist

This summer, some lucky members of Oceanblue Divers will make the trip of a lifetime: two weeks of diving in Sulawesi, Indonesia. They'll spend a week at a picture-postcard resort in Lembeh, then board a gorgeous and spacious liveaboard boat for another week. And during this time, they will dive until they're waterlogged in some of the most pristine waters on the planet.

How much will they pay for this amazing experience? $4,680 per person, double occupancy. Seems like a lot of money. Okay, it IS a lot of money. But not when you consider what you get. Round trip airfare on Singapore Airlines. A standard villa for a week (double occupancy) at the new Kasawari Lembeh Resort. All meals for the entire two weeks. All diving (three dives a day at the resort, at least four a day on the liveaboard). Airport transfers and taxes. About all these lucky divers will have to pay for is alcohol and any shopping they care to do.

Unfortunately, I can't take two weeks off this summer, but out of curiosity, I Googled the search terms "dive report Sulawesi." Here's a sampling of some of the reports I read:

• "North Sulawesi, and in particular Lembeh Strait, is said to contain the world's greatest diversity of marine bio-diversity on our planet."
• "The keywords here would have to be the immense diversity and pristine condition of the reefs. The coral communities are as rich as I've seen anywhere in the world."
• "How about the diving? Absolutely fabulous, as always! We've been suffering from severe critter overload over the past few months, which is not a bad thing at all."
• "This year marked our third visit to Sulawesi. There’s a very simple reason we’ve been eager to return here: The diving is simply spectacular."
• "The sea life is amazingly diverse. I saw critters that I did not even imagine existed, and sometimes just nodded to John (our dive guide) when he was pointing at something that in fact I could not see!"

Indonesia is Mecca for the dive community: everyone has to make a pilgrimage there at least once in their life. And from what I've read, everyone who does go wants to go back. You probably won't find a better deal than this summer's Oceanblue Divers trip, so if you can get the two weeks off from work, school or other commitments, grab one of the few remaining spots and make 2007 the year of your dive pilgrimage.